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May 31, 2013

Friday May 31, 2013, Don Gagliardo and C.C. Burnikel

How nice to welcome Hard G and C.C. back to Friday, their first visit to my patch since last May. Appropriately for C.C. as a baseball fan, we have the old hidden ball trick, where the name of a popular camera manufacturer is found spread between the words of each of the three theme answers, with a classic reveal. Some really sparkly fill like RNA spelled out, PLUMMETS, NITROGEN, DERISIVE and ARCANE just to name a few. We also have some clecho, some arcane stuff that's fun to learn So let us do this.

19A. "This will get better, I promise" : IT GROWS ON YOU.(12) For some reason SONY jumped right out at me once I filled in the answer, which took a while, as I had to resort to doing the down clues first to get a toehold. Did not know if perhaps TVs were going to be the theme.

31A. "That's surreal!" : I CAN ONLY IMAGINE. (15) The CANON sure shot being perhaps the most advertised of all cameras.

53A. Surveillance device found in 19-, 31- and 39-Across : HIDDEN CAMERA. (12) It says it exactly, a camera hidden in each theme answer. A very conventional theme and grid with many fewer words than we have seen on Friday recently.

44. Arkansas River city : PUEBLO. Why these are in Colorado, I do not know.

45. "Star Wars" title : DARTH. and the clecho 65A. "Star Wars" title : SIR. DARTH is Sith for Lord, as he was also called Lord Vader. In later movies (set earlier in time) we have Darth Maul which is a great name. Sir, I presume refers to Sir Alec Guinness who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi, who said, "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

48. Detriment to team performance, maybe : EGO. Who are your least favorite athlete? Is it a big ego who did nothing, like Brian Bosworth, or someone on a successful team who wants all the credit.

49. Master of ___ : ARTS. For some reason, I first plunked in ARMS.

57. Not widely understood : ARCANE. From the Latin word meaning secret, I always thought of it as mostly forgotten knowledge, though it is a wonderful crossword fill, and talking point. Are arcane words fair game to use in puzzles?

60. Air, mostly : NITROGEN. Love this clue as well since 85% of our air is nitrogen.

61. Where lizards hang out? : LOUNGE. Very sweet clue; are they lizards because of their cold nature? Their forked tongues? Their shoes?

62. Mocking : DERISIVE. Love this being right after Lounge Lizard. It...

25. CNN journalist Kaye : RANDI. This 'investigative' journalist. LINK.(0:18) you get the impression C.C, watches a lot of news? (From C.C.: Randi Kaye used to be the news anchor for WCCO here at Twin Cities.)

26. 1984-2002 honorary Masters starting group member : SNEAD. Slammin' Sammy, one of the trio of golf legends born in 1912 who were featured in this fine PUZZLE.

27. Dot on a map : TOWN.

28. Turn out : END UP.

29. Virus carrier, at times : EMAIL. Simple, classy fill.

31. "The East ___": 1960s anthem in 32-Down : IS RED. No doubt an important part of C.C.'s childhood, this SONG.

32. Nepal neighbor : CHINA. More hometown stuff for our leader, this buffer country between China and India is historically and politically important and now friendly with China. LINK.

33. Place out of the sun : ARBOR. We already had shade as a clue, so it had to be something else. Do they celebrate Arbor day where you love?

34. Revival prefix : NEO.

35. ___ Arena, former Sacramento sports venue : ARCO. The first sports venue named for a sponsor (Atlantic Richfield Oil, now part of BP, is in its second location, and is now called the Sleep Train Arena. Really!

51. Eternal City fountain : TREVI. Or as we call it la Fontana di Trevi.

52. Less likely to lose it : SANER. As Thomas Eagleton said, "if they say I am 5% mentally disabled at least I can prove I am 95% sane."

54. Legal document : DEED. Real Property, and what I do for a living, part of the time.

55. Shortcut key : CTRL. Alt. Delete. Oops you are all gone.

56. Solo delivery : ARIA. Not horse or soap.

57. Mont Blanc, e.g. : ALP. The mountain, not the PEN. So do you like or hate the Mountain as he rides off with Arya?

58. Canapé topping : ROE. fish eggs like from Shad.

59. Blackguard : CUR. I love the word Blackguard. Cur probably comes from ancient languages version of GRR, meaning to growl and first meant a mongrel dog. But is has become synonymous with bad people, for example Wyatt Earp called the Clantons curs in the movie Tombstone. (per wiki).

Well this week and this puzzle flew by, though I savored the solving, it was nice to see so few 3/4 letter fill. A pleasure blogging our Dynamic Duo, and maybe off to watch the new Star Trek movie. Good to see how many newbies are becoming regulars and always great to see any of the 2008 crowd. Sorry to see San Jose lose, just for Eddy B.

Another failure and it's becoming a complete pain. Next week..... 100% solves for Mon thru FRI.

Almost gave up today, but slowly the grid started to fill in. Once I had the theme answer, things began to roll. 31D, THE EAST IS RED was my last fill. Had Ono for 23A & GIBON.... for 39A. , but decided The East is God would never pass muster. RED arrived and lived.

But my goof was 63A PERKED. I entered Picked, never thought twice about it, so Roi & Cuc were never questioned. Careless on my part for a shoddy review.

There were several science answers which helped me zip through this one. "If air is 85% Nitrogen, then the other 21% must be Oxygen," he said DERISIVEly. RIBONUCLEIC ACID came trippingly off my pen point when I realized there was no room for DEOXY.

I had _U__LO, so the Arkansas River got moved to Mississippi: Tupelo. Didn't last. Hand up for ISLE before TOWN. With TEETHE in place, "turn out" became EVERT before END UP showed up.

I never could figure out how to work a HULA HOOP. I made and sold some as a kid. All you needed was a length of garden hose, a piece of dowel and a couple staples. Mom wasn't happy about the garden hose, though.

Lots of challenging unknowns for me, but perps and WAGS got me through it unscathed. I was looking for my own camera--NIKON at CANON, but came through that pause too. I never really knew what RNA stood for. I've never studied biology, so what I do know is mostly from here and reading.

Fun puzzle from C.C. and Don G. today, and I never saw the theme coming until it hist me in the face. I loved how the hidden cameras were spread over two or three words, instead of being buried in only one word. The fill was especially nice, as Lemony already mentioned.

Hands up for spelling STOSSle wrong, Barry!And hand up for plopping in RIBONUCLEIC ACID without batting an eye, d-otto. After last night's spelling bee, that one seemed like first grade stuff to me!

Ya gotta love a puzzle with RNA spelled out hiding LEICA! Wow, what a fun labor very aptly summarized in Lemon’s first paragraph – no need to gild the lily.

Musings-She used a HIDDEN CAMERA in her business (7th paragraph)-Did you see this guy PLUMMET to Earth off Everest in NEPAL this week?-I had a “plane that loops the loop” and a “hula hoop”-People that invested with Warren Buffet years ago turned out to be SHREWD. Those with Bernie Madoff – not so much-My favorite thing thing on/over the Arkansas River-Sports people I respect said Carmelo Anthony’s EGO stymied the Knicks this year-Eddie Murphy’s PLUTO Nash is always listed as one of the worst movies ever but the Murphy/Piscopo SNL skit is a favorite of mine-My good shots that END UP on the green can be SPOTTY-My swinging HINGE joint was an ELBOW first-4 letter cookie – OREO you’re out, AMOS you’re in-In what famous TV series set in the early 50’s had an episode where a curmudgeonly man refuses to invest in a hula hoop or Frisbee?

What a nice surprise from our DD and on a Friday level, yet. Slow start but with just enough firm anchors like TREVI, HULAHOOP, and EBONIES, the solve was able to fill out. Liked ARCANE and MEOW. Couldn't get the NE started although I guessed at BABY, but finally looked up LIZ in my CW dictionary. That gave BRONZE and TROUT, and finished it. With HIDDEN CAMERA an early fill, it was fun finding the camera in the other 3 theme phrases. Well done!

Happy Friday, everyone! Thanks C.C. and Don G. for a real challenge that was plenty fun, even if it ended in a DNF for me. Had to rely on the blog and Lemon’’s expert expo to finish. Enjoyed the Candid Camera clip.

Favorite clue/answer by far – Where Lizards Hang Out = LOUNGE. My solve-from-the-bottom-up strategy for difficult puzzles gave me the HIDDEN CAMERA reveal early on, which helped with the long theme answers. Too many missteps in the midsection (ONO instead of ENO, ILIAR instead of ILIAC) kept the spelled-out RNA from appearing.

Well, the Corner Crowd had a trifecta this week with Marti, Jerome, and CC. Plus the added bonus of Don G. It doesn't get any better than that.

Great puzzle, Dynanic Duo. The theme and execution are very impressive and the fill shines. While some areas were challenging, overall, everything fell into place. Loved Got Milk?= meow and where lizards hang out= lounge. Lemony, your expo was spot-on.

Again, thanks for all of the shout outs for my niece. You are all very kind.

What a fun Friday puzzle for me. Thanks CC and Don. I didn’t know what I didn’t know until reading your blog, Lemonade. Thanks.

I couldn’t think of APB but took a guess at APHID. Keep going with the down clues and got 27 of them! And on a Friday! (I must read the Corner every day?)I did have red letter help on so when I put C in for dot on a map it was wrong, so typed in TOWN. I also spelled SNEAD with two Es so had to fix that. Technically a DNF but I never had to run the alphabet—only a letter here and there that I needed to redo.

I was good with a hula hoop in my youth. Tried it with my grandkids a couple summers ago—not good at all anymore. None of them are as good as I was! I had ACID and started with the scientific name for LSD. I had CHINA & ARBOR already there, so needed to change it. My 7th graders had to learn RIBONUCLEIC ACID before they could abbreviate to RNA. I got the theme at _CANON_ but I have never heard of LEICA, but got it with perps.

My husband tossed a coin over his shoulder into TREVI fountain in 1953. In 2003 he took me there. He said he really didn’t believe the legend the first time, but it ended up being true for him. I absolutely did not get Viking landing site was MARS; I filled it in with perps and still though it must be some Norse word for land or beach or something. DUH!! When I read it written horizontally, Lemon, it sunk in. I really felt dumb.

I thought I had finally completed one of the harder dynamic duo puzzles, but reading the Blog reveals I picked instead of perked. (which reminds me, my coffee machine broke, & I have to buy a new one, or buy 2 different specialty screwdrivers to take the dang thing apart! Why do they do that! I can see special lugs on tires to prevent theft, but special screws on coffee machines? Damn!)

Oh, sorry, that rant just slipped out...

Uh, where was I? Oh yes, I do not remember putting armada in the puzzle. I know I had "alco" instead of arco, & no "R" in randi. I must go dig the puzzle out of the recycle bin to see what on earth I put instead of "stirs."

Oreo b/4 Amos, & I thought that dot on a map was a "city" at first. But I am glad I am not the only one who put "elbow" before "hinge."

fun fact: The Arkansas river starts in Colorado but ends in Arkansas at the Mississippi- 6th largest river in the US. The people in Arkansas prounounce it like their state, but the people in Kansas and Colorado prounounce it like - "Are- Kan'sas" the last part of it like the state of Kansas. I wonder how people in Oklahoma say it where the river also traverses....

Wow! Two Dynamic Duos in one week--it doesn't get any better than this! And on a Friday yet! Yay!

On top of all that I came THIS close to getting five in a row this week, plus a Diabolical Sudoku, this morning. But hit a Natick only with RANDI and LAN. Still this was too much fun to complain. The fun began when I got HULA HOOP right off the bat. Do I know my Chipmunks, or what? Then I hit a real snag when I put EBOLA for the virus instead of EMAIL. I think that was a case of repression because I worry much more about EMAIL viruses than EBOLA ones.

Couldn't believe the grid spanner was RIBONUCLEICACID! Wish my biochemist husband would have done this puzzle. He would have loved that!

I swept through the top of today's puzzle at Monday speed, slowed down only by misreading 1A as Manhunt ORG. PLUTO and HULAHOOP were my first fill-ins. Had a bit of trouble with TEETHE, as I too thought of ISLE. Things began to get SPOTTY after that, filling in bits and pieces, but it eventually all came together. Did not see the theme right away, but after getting HIDDEN CAMERA, I was able to add CANON to 31A. After that, the rest was pretty easy.I may have to try CED's method of reading the Captcha!

Thank you C.C. and Don.Almost gave up. WEES about Isle, PicKED Makes me mad that I had ROE from the start.Thout CAMERA would be in anagrams in the answers. Then thought SONY would be there in all. Cannot believe you two got the complete spelling of RNA in an answer. Yikes!Great fun. Thanks, Lemony!

Oh, and this is the first time, I believe, that I have ever known what RNA stands for. The moment I had reached as far as RIBON, I knew it would be trouble, as that's no way to spell "Ribbon." Finally, I got it, and thanks to today's puzzle, will never forget RIBONUCLEIC ACID.

Very cool puzzle today. Liked it a lot. Some terrific words! Damn clever cluing. Laughed out loud at LOUNGE lizard and MEOW. Wanted TIBET for a long time, but at least I figured "dot on a map" was going to be either city or town, although I also thought of isle.

My almost-Natick was having two unknown proper names, RANDI and SNEAD, side by side, although after I got a few letters I was able to finally get SNEAD, which made sense after I figured it out.

This is exactly the kind of puzzle I like: seemingly daunting at first, yet ultimately solvable without having to look anything up, with plenty of 5-or-more-letter words and phrases, clever, funny, misleading clues, and a fun theme.

I have rafted under the Royal Gorge bridge five times. The last time I did it was the first time for our guide, it had rained the night before so the Arkansas river was pretty high, and we figured we would, if graded, receive an A Plus. So I figured I'd never have to do it again, because it's pretty scary at times. I thought at first the link was going to be something about Christos covering the river with fabric, which he finally got permission to do from the locals. They fought against it like crazy, which is strange because the area really could use the money it's going to bring in.

Hi Y'all! When I saw Don & C.C. were the constructors, I was expecting hard. I struggled a bit, but got 'er done. Great puzzle! I got the hidden camera theme but took me awhile to accept that SONY has a camera. I,too, was looking for my Nikon.

Great expo, Lemonade. EDE licked me until Lemon 'splained.

EGO: my least favorite athlete is Kobe Bryant who is not a team player, but a grandstander.

Rainbow pride/Brite/ oh, TROUT!

Wanted Bhutan, but didn't fit as well as CHINA which gave me IS RED.

I thought we were trying for LSD instead of RNA, but perps disabused me of that.

Sleepless night with a big roaring hail storm which left the ground covered with marble-to golf ball-sized ice! Beat a lot of leaves off the trees and my rose bushes were beaten down but not broken. Not much wind in the storm, thank heavens. Two big heavy rain/thunderstorms went through. This is getting to be a nightly occurrence. I was glad the tender little plants I purchased this week were still on my porch and not in the ground.

It is said the bravest human ever was the first one to eat an oyster. I believe the bravest constructor's ever put RIBONUCLEIC ACID in a themed 15x, weekday puzzle and didn't worry about the editor wondering if they were crazy.

Lemonade, I am in another place and another time zone, totally disoriented - maybe in another time warp, for all I care - but I could not let a 'Friday Blog', pass, if possible, without saying Hi to you.

sLemonade- Not sure what Gareth was alluding to other than it has a low word count... 72, and a lot of wide open space for a LAT weekday puzzle. Those six letter stacks in the NE, SW corners and the eight letter stacks in the NW and SE corners create a grid that's tough to fill. It seems to me, and I could certainly be wrong, that Rich has amped up the difficulty level of Friday, Saturday puzzles. I hope this is true.

Qli, no I did not mention that show. It was M*A*S*H and here is the synopsis:

“A fourth running joke is Klinger's get rich-quick schemes: only one (11.5) has a real chance to succeed, when Klinger tries to have Major Winchester invest in a hula hoop prototype; unfortunately for Klinger, Winchester's ego ruins any chance of success. Quote Major Winchester, "My God, Klinger! You've invented the circle!"

At the end of the episode Charles unwittingly picks up a lid and throws it like a perfect Frisbee and the screen freezes just before the closing credits. Oh for two!

Thanks to all. It was a very enjoyable puzzle that was hard for me. I have nothing new to add since it's even later in the day than usual.

I spent most of the morning shuttling Barbara to her doctor's office for the first after-surgery visit. I liked him and he was pleased with her progress. Apparently, there's no reason she can't start showering and driving now. Stairs are still hard but doable.

I haven't had any shad roe in years. I miss it. I think I will try to substitute a hunk of scrapple on my next trip to the market.

Worked on this gem for about 30 minutes this morning before leaving for my annual physical. EKG looks like a copy from two years ago. That is a good thing. Still prescribed a stress test. Hah ! Told him that it seems I have a stress test at work every day. Oh, the other kind.

Came home and had a message on the recorder. Our tenant couldn't find the garage door opener to the condo, and felt someone may have taken it. Quick trip to the hardware store to get another, then 30 minutes to delete the old codes and reprogram the new one and also recode the wireless keypad outside the garage door. If someone did purloin the opener, it won't work now. All parties are now relieved.

Finally was able to get back to the puzzle after deciding to take the day off. Was confident that I could get this one without aid, but it didn't work out that way. In retrospect, I should have just started over with a clean slate. I couldn't make sense of so many fills, and changed the game to regular.

Love handle was not belly. Don't know what I was thinking there. IMHO was not FWIW. Shade at the beach was not spf. Place out of the sun was not shade. Swinging joint was not elbow. Cookie name was not oreo. Legal doc was not writ. Mont Blanc was not MTN (duh).

Removing all the wrong answers helped tremendously. As I found better fill, it came together slowly but surely.

Yes, it really is awful, the way regular commenters here show appreciation for what the constructors accomplish, especially when it is something not only technically strong, unusual, and original, but also remarkable.

It seems I'm being pressed to appear in court as an expert witness in an aviation matter...I'm not altogether thrilled about it because he case is to be heard in Manhattan in midsummer. On the other hand, I would find myself conveniently near those lovely Reuben sandwiches at Katz's. mmmmmm

After my last fiasco with roof replacement, I'm not eager to do that again. I put on heavy duty shingles and they look okay to me, but who knows.

My daughter is in Florida. I went over to see about her 2 yr. old car in the driveway. It has about a dozen nice little dimples on the hood & top, but the glass is intact.

I've been watching the reports of tornados around Oklahoma City tonight and have emailed my AF sonto let me know if they are okay. Haven't heard back, but who knows whether they have electricity or communications towers in that mess. They are north of OKC... They have a nice underground shelter if they get to it in time.

I heard that the TV storm chasers near OKC got their vehicle flipped and the airbags deployed but no serious injuries. It's a wonder none of these chasers have been killed. I'd rather not know some of the things they risk their lives to show us.

PK - So happy to hear that your son and family are okay. I thought of them as soon as I put the news on. I hope the loss of life is minimal; so far, I have heard of two, a mother and young child. Tragic.

Kalendi - to add to Bill G's reply, you may have seen a similar shortcut: WBS. It means What Barry Said. It's handy for those frequent times when Barry G, one of the early-in-the-day posters, has worded a very similar solving experience.